In 1980, Jewish real estate tycoon Silverstein, won a bid from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to construct 7 World Trade Center to the north of the WTC. Building 7 World Trade Center was situated above a (Con Ed) power substation, which imposed unique structural design constraints.”
When the building first opened in 1987, Silverstein had difficulties attracting tenants. In 1988, Salomon Brothers signed a long-term lease, and became the main tenants of the building.
But this building was also losing money. Silverstein was interested in acquiring the entire World Trade Center complex, and put in a bid when the Port Authority put it up for lease in 2000. (he had waited over 20 years for this!).
In January 2001, Silverstein, via Silverstein Properties, made a $3.2 billion bid for the lease to the World Trade Center. Silverstein was initially outbid by $50 million by Boston Properties and Brookfield Properties with Vornado Realty, who were also competing for the lease”. Silverstein won the bid when a deal between the initial lease applicant and the Port Authority fell through, Silverstein signed the lease on July 24, 2001, only weeks (48 days) before the towers were destroyed on 11th September of the same year.
Larry Silverstein had acquired what was considered a very expensive ”white elephant”. Here comes a Red Flag; After Silverstein closed his deal he stated; “This is a dream come true,” “We will be in control of a prized asset, and we will seek to develop its potential, raising it to new heights.” Yet this was a comment that was meant to make the public think this was a good investment. He didn’t want to draw attention to the fact that he was buying the dead asset which the WTC was immediately before 9/11. Why ? Because he already knew what was going to happen!

This was written in “‘Business week” with regard to the WTC before 9/11. From an economic standpoint, the Trade Center — subsidized since its inception — has never functioned, nor was it intended to function, unprotected in the rough-and-tumble real estate marketplace.
The Port Authority had made several attempts over the years to get the permits required to demolish the entire site but were always refused because of the “asbestos problem” and the serious danger that “asbestos” would cause to the local community should the buildings be “demolished” in the conventional manner.His only consent to get around that risk to health was that the building could be literally dismantled “‘floor by floor”, which could never have been a viable operation. Other New York developers had apparently been driven to bankruptcy by the costly mandated renovations and the prospect of $200 million to plug those losses, which represented an entire year’s worth of revenues from the World Trade Towers at full rental capacity.

So even after Larry Silverstein’s multi billion dollar acquisition in July of 2001 the Towers still required further funds of some $200 million in renovations and improvements to make the buildings rentable. Most of the 200 million renovation funds related to the removal and replacement of building materials declared to be health hazards in the years since the towers were built.
Here we see a Red Flag; Where would that money have come from if Silverstein already had to invest 14 million of his own money to close the deal? This 14 million of Silverstein’s personal funds being used in the deal tells us there was no more investors money available when he bought the lease in July 2002, so how would Silverstein have found another 200 million dollars to bring the WTC up to the standard for it to start to pay its own way?

Red Flag; One has to ask why would the biggest real estate developer in the USA acquire a group of buildings that were losing hundreds of thousands of dollars per month? Especially as this new lease did not give him the right to redevelop the WTC site to make it a viable investment.

Now here’s the interesting clause to the 99 year lease that was “‘turning Silverstein on”; although Silverstein was not permitted to redevelop the site, HE DID HAVE THE RIGHT TO REBUILD THE STRUCTURES SHOULD THEY BE DESTROYED.
Now remember, Silverstein invested not only 3.2 billion dollars of other people’s money into the deal, but also 14 million dollars of his own money! Now that’s a very unusual investment step to take by a real estate genius, putting all that money into a site that was continuously a monumental financial loss.
A site that can never be developed in a way that was financially feasible! How does one justify that move to ones 3.2 billion dollar investors? I would love to have seen the Business Plan for that! We should certainly ask for those!

After closing the WTC deal in late July 2001, Silverstein immediately insured his “‘white elephant” buildings. The insurance coverage on the property ‘fortuitously’ covered acts of terrorism.
And more curiously, Silverstein filed TWO insurance claims for the maximum amount of the policy, based on the two, in Silverstein’s view, separate attacks.
The total potential payout was $7.1 billion, more than enough to build a fabulous new complex and leave a hefty profit for the Silverstein Group, including Larry Silverstein himself.
From Forbes.com 6th Dec 2004, “A federal jury on Monday ruled that the assault on the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center was in fact two occurrences for insurance purposes”.
The finding in U.S. District Court in Manhattan means leaseholder Larry Silverstein may collect up to $4.6 billion, according to reports. “That means Silverstein got his buildings demolished in hours, he gets his insurance payments giving him 1.3 billion dollars more than he paid for the WTC 99 year lease, he gets free rein to build a state of the art, healthy, cost effective complex in the centre of Manhatten.
And all only 48 days after he signed the contracts! No wonder he used his own 14 million dollars, he KNEW he was getting it back!
Here we also start to think, hold on, if so many BIG people knew that the buildings were not permitted to be demolished due to health risks from asbestos, why were the locals told the air was “safe to breath” immediately after the 9/11 collapse?
The Port authority had applied for years for permits and had been refused yet they lied saying the air was safe. Why?
Then we have those famous words of Silvestein days after the 9/11 horror, “I remember getting a call from the, uh, Fire Department Commander, telling me they were not sure they were going to be able to contain the fire. I said, “You know, we’ve had such terrible loss of life, maybe the smartest thing to do is pull it, uh…and they made that decision to pull, and we watched the building collapse.” ~ Larry Silverstein, owner of New York’s World Trade Center Building 7, which was demolished on 9/11/2001.

'THEY' sure do like to rub everyone's noses in it, and STILL people don't wake up!

“Larry Silverstein has had a profound effect on Lower Manhattan’s skyline.”

Truer words were never spoken.

By admittedly participating in the decision to “pull” Building 7, in the wake of the controlled demolitions of his Twin Towers, Silverstein certainly did exert a “profound effect” on the skyline.

Another Spinola howler begins: “After signing a groundbreaking 99-year lease for the original World Trade Center, Larry shocked the world…”

…by blowing up the white-elephant condemned-for-asbestos buildings he bought two months earlier, after doubling the terror insurance and changing the policy to cash-payout – then doubling THAT sum by claiming double-indemnity due to the “two completely separate and unrelated terrorist attacks” – namely, the two planes?

Alas, Spinola veers away from the truth and merely tells us Larry shocked the world “by declaring his intention to rebuild the site following the tragedy of September 11.”

What has really shocked the world is Larry’s managing to survive this long without being shot, strangled, garrotted, pummeled, decapitated, and/or defenestrated by one or more angry family members of 9/11 victims...'_________________'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.

Mr Larry Silverstein is a man that can only be well connected. Born in Brooklyn, to poor middle-class Russian-Jewish parents during the depression...

In 1957, [Father and son] established Silverstein Properties, as Harry G. Silverstein & Sons, and bought their first building, in Manhattan. Larry set about getting friends and family to invest money in him to buy and renovate scruffy lofts and cheap buildings in run down areas of New York. Now the Silverstein's could command some decent rents and real income through sales.
...

In 1956 Larry married Klara, who he had met at Jewish summer camp. The family struggled to start with and Klara used her paltry $3,200 salary as a teacher to help the family get through those early years. The family joke is that Klara was the original Silverstein breadwinner.

Around this time, Larry's best friend |Bernard Mendik, a later New York law School graduate, married Larry's sister Annette and became part of the Silverstein family business. The three men Harry, Larry and Bernard then set their sights on becoming the most powerful real estate developers of New York. When Harry Silverstein died in 1966, Bernard Mendik and Silverstein's son Larry formed Silverstein & Mendik.

...

By the time Silverstein set his sights on the WTC, his brother-in-law Bernard Mendik had split from Silverstein after divorcing Larry's sister. With the divorce, also came the split of the Silverstein Mendik business partnership. Mendik was now running his own property company, The Mendik Company. At the time of the split with Silverstein, Mendik cited disagreements with Silverstein over real estate strategies, with Mendik wanting to buy buildings while Silverstein wanted to build. It is said things were "'not good'' between Larry and Bernard at the time of their split and it was also said that "'Larry and Bernard had a messy falling-out after Mr. Mendik divorced Mr. Silverstein's sister Annette'' Mendik, who went on to be a very successful lawyer and property developer in his own right after splitting from Silverstein was well liked and did much for charity.

Both men went their own ways till April 1997, when Bernard Mendik, ex brother in law of Silverstein folded his company holdings into the Vornado Realty Trust, a real estate investment trust with shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange. It was said at the time of the negotiations ''The combination, of Vornado with the Mendik Company's 40-year experience in the ownership and operation of office properties is expected to create a powerhouse that will be an active player in the city market.''

It was written by Lois Weiss in The Real Estate weekly in March 1997

"In one of the most interesting transactions this year, developer/owner Bernard Mendik has agreed to swap his city real estate portfolio to become part of the Vornado Realty Trust. The transaction is valued at $654 million in a combination of cash, stock and debt,''

Mendik was at the time very close to forming his own REIT when Michael D. Fascitelli the former investment banker from Goldman Sachs who had been lured to Vornado Realty, convinced Mendik to join forces with Vornado. Mendik became Vornado's co-chairman. But later resigned in October 1998 to "'look after his personal investments''. Mendik was quoted as saying he was "stifled'' by corporate bureaucracy, but he still remained a major stockholder in Vornado after his resignation. Vornado Realty just happens to be the very same company which was Silverstein's competitor and beat Silverstein in the initial bid to the port authority for the WTC.

Mendik, through his great success and power in the city, become a very close friend to Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. So much of a trusted friend, that Mendik was hand-picked by Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani to head a business group that provides sanitation, security and other services around Grand Central Terminal. But rifts were caused between the men when Mendik had his own ideas about how to do things and made changes to the board of directors, much to the utter outrage of Giuliani. At the time, Mendik was quoted as saying '' the new group would be free of political interference''

There is no doubt that by the year 2000 Bernard Mendik, former best friend, founding business partner and brother-in-law of Silverstein was now not only a equal major player like Silverstein, but a powerful voice in the property world, in his tenth year as Chairman of the Real Estate Board of New York and certainly Silverstein's toughest competitor.
On February the 15th 2001 Vornado's bid for the WTC, outbid Silverstein Properties $3.2billion bid by over 50 million dollars. It has been said that at some point between the end of March and mid April 2001 Vornado "suddenly changed their minds'' and "suddenly pulled out'' There have been various reasons given for this, but there is nothing to verify either version.

On April the 26th 2001 Larry Silverstein put in his final bid for the WTC, only four weeks later Bernard Mendik was dead! On July the 24th 2001 Silverstein's offer which was 50 million dollars less than Vornado's was formally accepted and closed.

Bernard Mendik, major shareholder of Vornado Realty died on the 28th May 2001 after being taken "suddenly'' ill. Only weeks after Vornado "suddenly pulled out'' after the winning bid that beat Silverstein for the WTC. The official verdict was 'heart attack' Although heart attack is often an unpredicted health emergency, many of his friends find this hard to believe, as Mendik was as far as they could tell a ''very fit and health conscious man'' in fact, Mendik had even played his regular game of tennis the very day of his death. He had also had regular checkups by the best doctors that money could buy. It was later said that the heart attack was the result of "a blood disorder''. He had just turned 72. Whatever the cause of Mendik's demise one thing is certain, the withdrawal of Vornado's bid and the death of Mendik left the way clear for ''Lucky Larry'' Silverstein, to accomplish his multi million dollar dream.

One more for the 'Suspicious Deaths' thread! Murderous 'BAALams'!_________________'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.

It's difficult for many to see the wood for the trees when it comes to 9/11. So much horror, so much information, so many conspiracy theories, so much fear by those that don't want to be seen to buy into the theories, or even look at the evidence presented in case they are seen as a "traitor'' and we all know that famous Bushwellian comment, that has been drilled into the American psyche, to the point it has been as affective as a national lobotomy; ''you are either with us or with the terrorists''. It doesn't give one much room to move or make an informed opinion does it?

So, with all the fear and paranoia of being seen as a ''traitor'' or even "'terrorist'' by taser toting Home Land Security, most prefer to just ignore the evidence. Muslim goes hand in hand with terrorism, Jew goes hand in hand with Israel, or does it? Much has been said about the use of the term "'Jewish'' with regard to the 9/11 insurance article about Mr Laurence Silverstein, multi Billionaire owner of the 99 year lease to the second biggest crime scene of all time, The World trade centre. (the first being Auschwitz-Birkenau). Some even say using the term 'Jewish' in context, is somehow anti-Semitic! Yet why are people so much less sensitive when the term "'Muslim'' is used whenever speaking of 'the terrorists'?

But in all fairness to be clear, one needs to be specific and include 'Islamic fundamentalists' to the Muslim in the case of Jihadists and Zionist to the Jew or other, that is intent on the total control of Palestine and the ethnic cleansing of those lands of the Palestinian peoples. After all, one can't really be a Jihadist unless a Muslim but one can be a Zionist without necessarily being a Jew. But the chances are, if you are a very wealthy American Jew, you are more than likely to be Zionist. But one needs to remember the Zionist plot to monopolize the holy land is only part of the Endgame to a One World Government controlled by the Bankster elite, with a pretext that the Jews are the chosen people and that Palestine or Israel, as the Zionists prefer to call it, is exclusively home to the lost tribe of Israel the Jews. I should add here, before I return to the core of this commentary on Laurence Silverstein and gang, that Jews and Muslims have lived in peace for hundreds of years before the Zionist plot to dominate Palestine and the endless propaganda created to create hatred between the two communities is merely that, propaganda. But what is the objective of this propaganda? What is it's purpose? and how does one plan this New World Order Endgame with the complete support of the western world?

Let's start by looking at a hypothesis, for example; how could one go about taking away civil power from the people in the west without a fight? Even better, in a way where the public literally hand over that power voluntarily? To start with, if I were mastermind and puppet-master of the 'Endgame' I would imagine we need a scapegoat and none better than the muslims, as they have so much to offer. After all, it is mainly within the Arab lands where the greatest riches and largest pools of petroleum resources lie, plus the largest poppy fields. So we have decided the Muslim Arabs are the initial candidates for scapegoats. Then we need to get everyone to mistrust and hate the scapegoat Muslims, not just the crazed ignorant fundamentalist Muslim that truly believes that after they have blown themselves and many innocents up, they will spend the rest of time in paradise drinking honey out of the cleavages of singing virgins. No, for a plan like this to work, we have to hate all muslims, men women and children. We can take some great tips from Hitler; he did exactly this when he made scapegoats of the Jews and Gypsies. A good start is to lock them up in a big concentration camp, we can do that in Gaza and starve and leave them with no sanitary conditions no clean water, no work, no freedom, nothing! And we don't let them come out unless we say so.

To keep them feeling utterly hopeless, we need to hound, harass and humiliate them, shooting the odd child and woman in the back when going to the shops is good, make them 'mad'! Make them hate us! Make them so mad they will do anything to get revenge, make them crazy and then we'll groom and recruit those crazies through our own agents that are infiltrated within the islamic 'cause'. Then we finance and groom our mad crazy Jihadists to pull off false flag ops for us! Wow! This could work. We could pull off shocking murderous operations on civilians and blame it all on the 'Jihadist terrorists', just as we did with the 1954 Operation Susannah the 1985 hijacking of The Archille Lauro, the 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, the list is long and truly impressive. Not only that, we need to do some really big scary horrific stuff so everyone hands over their civil liberties in the name of security. Slicing off the head of an American Jewish journalist on camera would be amazingly powerful, that will scare the pants off them! Imagine that on American TV! Fear is the key, the public should be reminded constantly that we are all under 'threat' from the nasty 'terrorists'. Then We'll set up 'off shore' detention camps and invent plots and cells that we can blame on innocent men going about their daily business, till we come in the night, cross- border and kidnap and drag them off to the detention camp.

Here we will use lots of grisly torture and threaten that we will do equally nasty things to their women and children so they confess to something they have never done. Oh, no trial, no access to legal process, of course not, it's got to be under wraps, can't have the b****** coming up with alibi's and evidence of their innocence. Great Plan! We had better do away with Habeas Corpus though! Oh, of course we already did that, great! We could dominate the entire Arab world and loot all the resources and after smashing the place up, we'll send in our own companies to 'rebuild'. All our rebuild contracts paid for by the dumb taxpayer! We are clever, yeah, who's going to stop us? We have the perfect excuse that we have to go in and "get them''. We'll tell everyone, "we need to stop dictatorships'' and "we need to spread democracy'' to these murderous unlawful regimes that don't respect human rights and who give refuge to the terrorists, yeah! that works. If half of the American public are dumb enough to believe that the Federal Reserve is a governmental institution and that Kennedy was shot by a lone gunman they'll believe anything!, They don't even know what democracy really means do they? After all, we whacked democracy years ago and buried it with the Patriot Act! But to continue to do this, we need to keep it amongst ourselves, yeah! Just our very close friends and those that do big favours for us. Hmm, what about our friend Larry Silverstein?

Mr Larry Silverstein is a man that can only be well connected. Born in Brooklyn, to poor middle-class Russian-Jewish parents during the depression, Larry still grew up doing all the things boys from better families do. Larry was taught to play the piano by his classical pianist father Harry and read lots and lots of good books. Larry attended the New York High School of Music and Art. But Larry's father realised that music and books don't make big bucks in Brooklyn, so he turned his hand to being a property broker, renting scruffy loft spaces in the rag district of Brooklyn. What Larry's parents lacked in pennies, they more than made up for in ambition. Larry's family although still relatively poor, surviving on rental commissions, managed to get Larry through NYU. Larry, after graduating from NYU with a new sense of business acumen, went to work full time for his father. Larry though, had bigger plans than his father and told Harry that being a middle man and just taking commission, was not where the money was, to make money letting, one really needed to own the lofts. In 1957, they established Silverstein Properties, as Harry G. Silverstein & Sons, and bought their first building, in Manhattan. Larry set about getting friends and family to invest money in him to buy and renovate scruffy lofts and cheap buildings in run down areas of New York. Now the Silverstein's could command some decent rents and real income through sales. What Larry lacked in development know how, he made up in zealous salesman traits saying;

"You've got to believe it to sell'' "You've got to sell with a passion."

In 1956 Larry married Klara, who he had met at Jewish summer camp. The family struggled to start with and Klara used her paltry $3,200 salary as a teacher to help the family get through those early years. The family joke is that Klara was the original Silverstein breadwinner.

Around this time, Larry's best friend |Bernard Mendik, a later New York law School graduate, married Larry's sister Annette and became part of the Silverstein family business. The three men Harry, Larry and Bernard then set their sights on becoming the most powerful real estate developers of New York. When Harry Silverstein died in 1966, Bernard Mendik and Silverstein's son Larry formed Silverstein & Mendik.

Larry and Klara went on to have three children the eldest Sharon, although Harvard educated, then married and became a home-maker but the two younger children, Lisa and Roger went on to work for their father and still work for Silverstein properties today.

Silverstein's first big break came when he bought 11 west 42nd street near Bryant Park, before it was renovated to what it is today. He then built at 42nd west of Eleventh Avenue, and in lower Manhattan at 120 Broadway, a 1.8 million-square-foot giant occupying a full square block, steps from Wall Street. By the eighty's, Silverstein was a multi- millionaire and controlled more than 10 million square feet of Manhattan residential and commercial property.

By the time Silverstein set his sights on the WTC, his brother-in-law Bernard Mendik had split from Silverstein after divorcing Larry's sister. With the divorce, also came the split of the Silverstein Mendik business partnership. Mendik was now running his own property company, The Mendik Company. At the time of the split with Silverstein, Mendik cited disagreements with Silverstein over real estate strategies, with Mendik wanting to buy buildings while Silverstein wanted to build. It is said things were "'not good'' between Larry and Bernard at the time of their split and it was also said that "'Larry and Bernard had a messy falling-out after Mr. Mendik divorced Mr. Silverstein's sister Annette'' Mendik, who went on to be a very successful lawyer and property developer in his own right after splitting from Silverstein was well liked and did much for charity.

Both men went their own ways till April 1997, when Bernard Mendik, ex brother in law of Silverstein folded his company holdings into the Vornado Realty Trust, a real estate investment trust with shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange. It was said at the time of the negotiations ''The combination, of Vornado with the Mendik Company's 40-year experience in the ownership and operation of office properties is expected to create a powerhouse that will be an active player in the city market.''

It was written by Lois Weiss in The Real Estate weekly in March 1997

"In one of the most interesting transactions this year, developer/owner Bernard Mendik has agreed to swap his city real estate portfolio to become part of the Vornado Realty Trust. The transaction is valued at $654 million in a combination of cash, stock and debt,''

Mendik was at the time very close to forming his own REIT when Michael D. Fascitelli the former investment banker from Goldman Sachs who had been lured to Vornado Realty, convinced Mendik to join forces with Vornado. Mendik became Vornado's co-chairman. But later resigned in October 1998 to "'look after his personal investments''. Mendik was quoted as saying he was "stifled'' by corporate bureaucracy, but he still remained a major stockholder in Vornado after his resignation. Vornado Realty just happens to be the very same company which was Silverstein's competitor and beat Silverstein in the initial bid to the port authority for the WTC.

Mendik, through his great success and power in the city, become a very close friend to Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. So much of a trusted friend, that Mendik was hand-picked by Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani to head a business group that provides sanitation, security and other services around Grand Central Terminal. But rifts were caused between the men when Mendik had his own ideas about how to do things and made changes to the board of directors, much to the utter outrage of Giuliani. At the time, Mendik was quoted as saying '' the new group would be free of political interference''

There is no doubt that by the year 2000 Bernard Mendik, former best friend, founding business partner and brother-in-law of Silverstein was now not only a equal major player like Silverstein, but a powerful voice in the property world, in his tenth year as Chairman of the Real Estate Board of New York and certainly Silverstein's toughest competitor.

On February the 15th 2001 Vornado's bid for the WTC, outbid Silverstein Properties $3.2billion bid by over 50 million dollars. It has been said that at some point between the end of March and mid April 2001 Vornado "suddenly changed their minds'' and "suddenly pulled out'' There have been various reasons given for this, but there is nothing to verify either version.

On April the 26th 2001 Larry Silverstein put in his final bid for the WTC, only four weeks later Bernard Mendik was dead! On July the 24th 2001 Silverstein's offer which was 50 million dollars less than Vornado's was formally accepted and closed.

Bernard Mendik, major shareholder of Vornado Realty died on the 28th May 2001 after being taken "suddenly'' ill. Only weeks after Vornado "suddenly pulled out'' after the winning bid that beat Silverstein for the WTC. The official verdict was 'heart attack' Although heart attack is often un unpredicted health emergency, many of his friends find this hard to believe, as Mendik was as far as they could tell a ''very fit and health conscious man'' in fact, Mendik had even played his regular game of tennis the very day of his death. He had also had regular checkups by the best doctors that money could buy. It was later said that the heart attack was the result of "a blood disorder''. He had just turned 72. Whatever the cause of Mendik's demise one thing is certain, the withdrawal of Vornado's bid and the death of Mendik left the way clear for ''Lucky Larry'' Silverstein, to accomplish his multi million dollar dream.

Footnote:

Mendik at the time of his death was in his tenth year as Chairman of the Real Estate Board of New York. As chairman of the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY), Mendik and the organization lobbied successfully to eliminate the onerous "Cuomo" tax on capital gains that took ten cents on each dollar, and obtained the passage of state legislation that reduced the 3 percent transfer taxes on properties that were merely being exchanged for stock and not cash'' courtesy.

@TonyGosling: What an interesting address!!
'..Silverstein's first big break came when he bought 11 west 42nd street near Bryant Park, before it was renovated to what it is today. He then built at 42nd west of Eleventh Avenue, and in lower Manhattan at 120 Broadway, a 1.8 million-square-foot giant occupying a full square block, steps from Wall Street. By the eighty's, Silverstein was a multi- millionaire and controlled more than 10 million square feet of Manhattan residential and commercial property...'

120 Broadway rang a few bells! I had read about it in Antony Sutton's books about US assistance to Hitler AND the Bolsheviks.
I checked Sutton's 'Wall Street And The Rise Of Hitler', and found, page 166:
'The Pervasive Influence of International Bankers':
'Looking at the broad array of facts presented in the three volumes of the Wall Street series, we find persistant recurrence of the same names: Owen Young, Gerard Swope, Hjalmar Schacht, Bernard Baruch, etc.; the same international banks: J. P. Morgan, Guaranty Trust, Chase Bank: and the same location in New York: usually 120 Broadway.
This group of international bankers backed the Bolshevik Revolution and subsequently profitted from the establishment of a Soviet Russia. This group backed Roosevelt and profitted from New Deal Socialism. This group also backed Hitler and certainly profited from German armament in the 1930's. When Big Business should have been running it's business operations at Ford Mootor, Standard of New Jersey, and so on, we find it actively and deeply involved in political upheavals, war, and revolution in three major countries...'

The American International Corporation (AIC) was organized in New York on November 22, 1915, by the J.P. Morgan interests, with major participation by Stillman's National City Bank and the Rockefeller interests. The general office of AIC was at 120 Broadway. The company's charter authorized it to engage in any kind of business, except banking and public utilities, in any country in the world. The stated purpose of the corporation was to develop domestic and foreign enterprises, to extend American activities abroad, and to promote the interests of American and foreign bankers, business and engineering.

Frank A. Vanderlip has described in his memoirs how American International was formed and the excitement created on Wall Street over its business potential.4 The original idea was generated by a discussion between Stone & Webster — the international railroad contractors who "were convinced there was not much more railroad building to be done in the United States" — and Jim Perkins and Frank A. Vanderlip of National City Bank (NCB).5 The original capital authorization was $50 million and the board of directors represented the leading lights of the New York financial world. Vanderlip records that he wrote as follows to NCB president Stillman, enthusing over the enormous potential for American International Corporation:

James A. Farrell and Albert Wiggin have been invited [to be on the board] but had to consult their committees before accepting. I also have in mind asking Henry Walters and Myron T. Herrick. Mr. Herrick is objected to by Mr. Rockefeller quite strongly but Mr. Stone wants him and I feel strongly that he would be particularly desirable in France. The whole thing has gone along with a smoothness that has been gratifying and the reception of it has been marked by an enthusiasm which has been surprising to me even though I was so strongly convinced we were on the right track.

I saw James J. Hill today, for example. He said at first that he could not possibly think of extending his responsibilities, but after I had finished telling him what we expected to do, he said he would be glad to go on the board, would take a large amount of stock and particularly wanted a substantial interest in the City Bank and commissioned me to buy him the stock at the market.

I talked with Ogden Armour about the matter today for the first time. He sat in perfect silence while I went through the story, and, without asking a single question, he said he would go on the board and wanted $500,000 stock.

Mr. Coffin [of General Electric] is another man who is retiring from everything, but has 'become so enthusiastic over this that he was willing to go on the board, and offers the most active cooperation.

I felt very good over getting Sabin. The Guaranty Trust is altogether the most active competitor we have in the field and it is of great value to get them into the fold in this way. They have been particularly enthusiastic at Kuhn, Loeb's. They want to take up to $2,500,000. There was really quite a little competition to see who should get on the board, but as I had happened to talk with Kahn and had invited him first, it was decided he should go on. He is perhaps the most enthusiastic of any one. They want half a million stock for Sir Ernest Castle** to whom they have cabled the plan and they have back from him approval of it.

I explained the whole matter to the Board [of the City Bank] Tuesday and got nothing but favorable comments.6

Everybody coveted the AIC stock. Joe Grace (of W. R. Grace & Co.) wanted $600,000 in addition to his interest in National City Bank. Ambrose Monell wanted $500,000. George Baker wanted $250,000. And "William Rockefeller tried, vainly, to get me to put him down for $5,000,000 of the common."7

By 1916 AIC investments overseas amounted to more than $23 million and in 1917 to more than $27 million. The company established representation in London, Paris, Buenos Aires, and Peking as well as in Petrograd, Russia. Less than two years after its formation AIC was operating on a substantial scale in Australia, Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Colombia, Brazil, Chile, China, Japan, India, Ceylon, Italy, Switzerland, France, Spain, Cuba, Mexico, and other countries in Central America.

American International owned several subsidiary companies outright, had substantial interests in yet other companies, and operated still other firms in the United States and abroad. The Allied Machinery Company of America was founded in February 1916 and the entire share capital taken up by American International Corporation. The vice president of American International Corporation was Frederick Holbrook, an engineer and formerly head of the Holbrook Cabot & Rollins Corporation. In January 1917 the Grace Russian Company was formed, the joint owners being W. R. Grace & Co. and the San Galli Trading Company of Petrograd. American International Corporation had a substantial investment in the Grace Russian Company and through Holbrook an interlocking directorship.

AIC also invested in United Fruit Company, which was involved in Central American revolutions in the 1920s. The American International Shipbuilding Corporation was wholly owned by AIC and signed substantial contracts for war vessels with the Emergency Fleet Corporation: one contract called for fifty vessels, followed by another contract for forty vessels, followed by yet another contract for sixty cargo vessels. American International Shipbuilding was the largest single recipient of contracts awarded by the U.S. government Emergency Fleet Corporation. Another company operated by AIC was G. Amsinck & Co., Inc. of New York; control of the company was acquired in November 1917. Amsinck was the source of financing for German espionage in the United States (see page 66). In November 1917 the American International Corporation formed and wholly owned the Symington Forge Corporation, a major government contractor for shell forgings. Consequently, American International Corporation had significant interest in war contracts within the United States and overseas. It had, in a word, a vested interest in the continuance of World War I....'

It is virtually impossible to develop an unshakable conclusion about the significance of 120 Broadway; explanations can range from conspiracy to coincidence.

What can we prove with direct, rather than circumstantial, evidence? First, we know that U.S. assistance to the Bolshevik Revolution originated in the Wall Street golden circle in 1917 and was heavily concentrated at this particular address.

Second, when FDR entered the business world in 1921, one of the two FDR offices was at this address, as was his law partnership with Basil O'Connor, and the Georgia Warm Springs Foundation.

Third, Bernard Baruch and his assistant Hugh Johnson, later part of the planning and administration of the National Industry Recovery Act, were in the same building. NRA was a logical sequel to the trade associations of the 1920s, and FDR had a prominent role, along with Herbert Hoover, in the implementation of trade association agreements in the 1920s.

Fourth, there was an association between General Electric and the Bolshevik Revolution, at least in building up the early Soviet Union. Executive offices of G.E. were at this address, as were those of Gerard Swope, the president of G.E. who authored the Swope plan.

Finally, the bizarre Butler affair had a few links with 120 Broadway.* For example, this was Du Pont's New York address, although Remington Arms was at Rockefeller headquarters, 25 Broadway. Most of the plotters had other addresses, but still all within the golden circle.

Nothing is proven by a common geographical location. While 120 Broadway was a massive building, it was by no means the largest in New York City. But how does one explain the concentration of so many links to so many important historical events at one address? One could argue that birds of a feather flock together. On the other hand, it is more than plausible that these Wall Streeters were following the maxim laid down by Frederick Howe and found it more convenient, or perhaps more efficient for their purposes, to be at a single address. The point to hold in mind is that no other such geographical concentration exists and, if we ignore the persons and firms at 120 Broadway, there is no case for any relationship between these historical events and Wall Street. Which, incidentally, is also an excellent reason for retaining one's perspective in accepting the fact that we are discussing a small fraction of the banking community, a fraction that has in effect betrayed the financial center of a free economy.'

(*The 'Butler Affair' was the attempt at a coup when the Banksters and Corporatists tried to enroll General Smedley Butler to lead the planned coup in the US.)

I don't know that this 'proves' anything, but it's certainly a strange 'coincidence', given all the other 'coincidences' in Lucky Larry's life. _________________'And he (the devil) said to him: To thee will I give all this power, and the glory of them; for to me they are delivered, and to whom I will, I give them'. Luke IV 5-7.

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